


Killers Courting

by Hyx_Sydin



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: First Meetings, Gore, M/M, Murderers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-01-11 23:41:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1179329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyx_Sydin/pseuds/Hyx_Sydin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On one of his 'excursions', Will Graham meets The Ripper!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Trying my hand at something new. I've already got the story mapped out in my head but not sure when I'll get to working on the rest.
> 
> I don't think it really counts as a crossover with Criminal Minds, I just happen to be using the characters...

It was going on midnight when I finally slipped out of the bush I had been hiding in for the past few hours, just waiting for the occupant of the house, as well as the neighbourhood, to settle down. A quick glance around as I dashed across the backyard confirmed that the houses in my surroundings were all dark and quiet, giving me the perfect opportunity to enter unseen. 

Sometimes after a really bad case, I would volunteer at dog shelters or veterinary clinics to distract myself from the death I had witnessed. It was on one such an occasion that I became aware of this man; the dog he had brought in was emaciated and beaten, he told the doctor it was a stray he found wondering his street, but I could see the way the dog behaved around him; the dog was his own. The vet had to put the animal down, the poor thing being too far gone already, and the man had left with a new puppy under his arm. That had been weeks ago and if it wasn’t for an urgent request of my skills taking me out of the State, I would have done something sooner. But now I had the time and was not going to let anything stop me from removing this man from existence.

His backdoor opened up into his kitchen, which was perfect because it was always my first stop in any of the houses I broke in to, so I silently made my way over to his drawers and searched for the perfect utensil. Freddie Lounds had crowed for days online when she pointed out that the latest serial killer used the murder victims’ own knives to kill them, something that Jack had tried to keep out of the press but ultimately failed at. I finally decided on a chef’s knife, it had seen better days but the point was still sharp, and therefore would still pierce flesh easily. Whether or not it would slice through the skin of his neck easily mattered not; the nicks in the blade meant it would be more painful for him to experience.

Satisfied with my weapon, I made a quick sweep of the ground floor, checking the basement as well, before making my way up the stairs carefully; on the first floor was the main bedroom, what should probably be another bedroom but was being used as storage space and a bathroom. It was when I was checking for an attic that I heard movement downstairs and, unsure of who or what it could be as all signs pointed towards my target living alone, I hid in the storage room in such a way that I could see out onto the landing as well as most of the main bedroom’s doorway. 

Someone, a man by the looks of it, made his way up the stairs and into the bedroom; he moved silently, assuredly, as if he knew the man lived alone, but not like a secret lover. No, there was something predatory in his manner and this piqued my interest, was he another killer? I was always my most patient when on one of my ‘excursions’, so I settled myself comfortably in order to wait and see just what this other man had planned for my target.

Some minutes later, the other man exited the room with what had to be the body of my target slung over his shoulder wrapped in what looked like bedding. Once I heard the front door close, I quickly made my way to the bedroom to see if there was any evidence of what had occurred there; it didn’t look as if much had been disturbed besides the bed which was missing its covers. On the bedside table was an empty syringe lying next to a doctor’s black satchel; picking up the bag I emptied it on the bed and discovered several scalpels, latex gloves, as well as Ziploc storage bags. Hearing movement downstairs once again, I made my way to the doorway and stood there waiting; he was halfway up the staircase when he looked up, straight at me.

“Greetings Doctor Ripper!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used Google Translate:  
> Le couteau wielder = The knife wielder  
> Vous parlez français, c'est . . . surprenant = You speak French, how . . . surprising  
> (Thanks to YL3 for the bit of help wit the French!)
> 
> Apologies if they're incorrect! <3

“Le couteau wielder.”

Tilting my head to the right, I flashed him a quick smile, eyes lingering on his tie. “That is a much better name than the one Freddie Lounds bestowed on me.”

His remained impassive but I saw the slight widening of his eyes; he was surprised. He inclined his head at me as he responded, “Vous parlez français, c'est. . . surprenant.” Then he continued up the stairs until he too was on the landing.

“I understand French, there’s a difference.” Neither of us said anything further as we watched each other. The way he was dressed; impeccably in a three piece suit, his tie matching his pocket square and the colour of his shirt bringing his entire outfit together, and looked; hair elegantly styled, face cleanly shaven and shaped eyebrows, all corresponded with some of the things I had included in my profile of The Chesapeake Ripper. The accent however was a surprise!

“If you would be so kind,” he stated, gesturing at the room behind me. “I would like to retrieve my bag, I dislike . . . dawdling.”

As I moved aside, I felt it wise to apologise for the mess I’d made, “I was curious as to what was in your bag. If you’ll allow me, I’ll put everything back.”

“That will not be necessary.” His mouth tightened unhappily as he took in the mess on the bed. I watched as he quickly packed everything back into his bag in what appeared to be a very specific order, even the used syringe was placed into a little plastic bag before disappearing into the black doctor’s bag. Once done, he lightly rested his hands on his bag as he looked up at me. “Is there something I can do for you?”

Amused, I allowed myself to grin, my eyes skirting over his cheekbones. “You’ve stolen my target.”

This time his mouth twitched in I imagine must be amusement as he grabbed the handles of his bag and made his way to the bedroom’s door, pausing to glance at me as he spoke. “I believe here is a saying somewhere; if you snooze, you lose!”

I couldn’t help but snort at the ridiculous saying, especially coming from a man such as him, and found myself following him down the stairs. “Why have you not tried to kill me?”

“I see no reason to,” he glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes, as he made his way to the kitchen. “And if I wanted you dead, you would be; there would be no ‘trying’ on my behalf!”

Most of the time I avoided spending time with other people, because they were tedious, and it was tiring to maintain a facade of normalcy, but I was honestly enjoying this man’s company.

He paused at the backdoor, hand on the handle, “I suppose you are responsible for this being unlocked?” I was still nodding to his question when he spoke again, voice hard. “What do you want?”

I honestly didn’t know the answer to that one, I was enjoying being in his company and wanted to continue doing so, plus there was the fact that he was The Chesapeake Ripper and it was my job to assist in his capture. Although what I wanted most was to watch him; and so that is what I said. “Can I come with? I’d like to watch, if you don’t mind that is?”

His left eyebrow rose as he studied my face, “Very well, just do not get in the way.” And then he was out the door and hurriedly leading the way to his car parked around the corner.

\---

As we drove, the car was filled with a tense silence; I had so many questions I wanted to ask him since I knew so much about his previous kills. I was curious as to his reasons for choosing his victims, why he took from their organs and flesh, why leave them the way he does . . . but I knew asking him too much would make him suspicious of me, I had to act as if the only information I had on him and his kills were gotten from TattleCrime.com.

“So why him?” That seemed like a reasonable question and would hopefully give me insight into how he chose all his victims. He just continued driving as if I had not asked him a question. “He abuses dogs; adopts them from shelters only to starve and beat them. That is why I want to kill him!” It was then that I realised I still held the knife in my hand, having clenched my hands into fists in anger and disgust. The only reaction from him was the turning of his head to glance from my face to my hands. Relaxing my grip, I placed the knife at my feet, keeping it in place with my right foot before continuing to speak. “So where exactly are we going? You have a place where you take them before cutting them up?” Still there was no response from him; becoming frustrated I tried a different approach. “I don’t really recognise your accent but it seems European . . . where are you from originally?” This time he did react but it was only a quick tightening of his hands around the wheel and a tightening of his lips. Sighing I gave up and stared out of the window.

It wasn’t even half an hour later that we pulled into what was left of an old building, three of its exterior walls standing as well as some support structures, but there was no roof. He parked the car and then disembarked, leaving the headlights on to illuminate the area in front of it, as he made his way to the car’s trunk. I climbed out, looking around curiously; this was not the kind of place I pictured the Ripper killing his victims in. I’d always believed he had a base of operations; a place he took his victims to and ‘operated’ on them before taking them to a dumping ground – that was what the evidence pointed to as well.

“I do not usually kill them in the same place I dump them,” he stated as he placed his victim on the ground. “But having you here changes everything.” He then proceeded to remove the man’s clothing as I made my way to the front of the vehicle and leaned back to rest on it. One of the corners of his mouth twisted down and his eyes narrowed slightly, probably unhappy I was using his car this way, once he was done with his task he quickly snapped his victim’s neck. “He forced me off the road with his reckless driving, I could have been killed or my car damaged.” His voice was cold and flat as he explained why this man had to die, folding all of the now dead man’s clothes and stacking everything into a neat bundle which he picked up and took with him as he returned to the rear of his car.

I was surprised at the seemingly mundane reason he had for killing the other man but it kind of made sense; in that his victims were just your normal, everyday person. He must kill those who have slighted him! He was out of sight for a long time, and I actually contemplated retrieving the knife I’d taken and stabbing the dead bastard in the heart despite him being dead already. By then the Ripper walked into the light again, only this time he was wearing a full personal protective jumpsuit and latex gloves which replaced the leather ones he had been wearing before, and carrying his doctor’s bag. I made myself comfortable as he placed his bag down a distance from the body and removed a scalpel before kneeling next to the body staring at it for long minutes. ‘I wonder what he’s thinking . . . if he’s deciding what to take . . . I wonder how he decides . . .’ 

Then as I watched, he sliced from just below the diaphragm down, as well as across the body’s stomach area several times, probably to get through skin and several layers of fat; his face showed signs of intense concentration. Seemingly satisfied, he used hands to widen the gap before his hands disappeared into the body and started moving things, probably organs and intestines, around. Once done, he brought his hands from the body and removed his gloves with the scalpel wrapped inside; this he then placed off to one side. Reaching into his bag again, he removed another pair of gloves putting them on over the pair he was still wearing, then reached into the bag again and removed several Ziploc bags and a new scalpel. After ensuring the bags were all open, he placed them onto the body’s chest above the gaping hole before taking the scalpel firmly into his right hand and reaching into the hole with his left. Watching him now as he removed the liver and both kidneys placing each into its own bag, I suddenly realised the reason for it; he was eating the organs - The Chesapeake Ripper was a cannibal that ate of his victims! As I continued to watch, my stomach knotted, he removed the gloves in the same manner as the other pair, even placing the by the others. This time he did not turn to his bag but instead placed each of the bags containing an organ into a second bag, ensuring that both bags were properly closed. He then placed the used gloves into a Ziploc bag as well.

As he moved the bags from the body’s chest to its thighs, he looked up at me with an unreadable look in his eyes. “Fetch the knife, and then come here.”

For a moment I thought about refusing, my latest discovery still fresh in my mind but stronger than that was my curiosity about what he had planned. So I stood and made my was to the passenger’s side where the door still stood open and retrieved the knife. As I made my way to him, I checked it to ensure it had not somehow pick up any of his car’s fibres; satisfied I came to a stop opposite him and just outside the puddle of blood. “I might have stolen your kill but you were here to witness it,” now his eyes gleamed dangerously. “How would you feel about confusing the investigators?”

This piqued my interest; least of which was the fact that I was one of those investigators, “What do you have in mind?” I asked, bending to crouch next to the body.

“Do your usual; slit his throat and embed his knife in his heart.”

I couldn’t help but grin at this as I went through with his suggestion, feeling his eyes on me throughout. A sudden thought occurred to me as I felt the knife pass through the muscle between his ribs until it pierced the heart. “Is this why you did not take his heart?”

“One of the reasons,” at the tilt of my head in inquiry he continued, “I do not have the proper tools needed to get into his chest cavity.”

“Removing it through that,” I said as I gestured at the gaping hole between us, “does seem quite messy.” Standing I took a step back and checked my boots to ensure I had not stepped in the blood; wouldn’t want to leave boot prints behind. Once satisfied, I returned to my previous spot and watched as he removed the gloves he was wearing, only to find he had on another pair. The dirty pair was placed with the others and then he stood and carefully started removing his blood stained jumpsuit. Once he was standing in only his suit sans jacket, he inspected the area around himself to ensure he had not left anything behind with which we, aka law enforcement, could potentially find him. Reassured, he gathered up his jumpsuit, doctor’s bag and the Ziploc bag containing the bloody gloves, he returned to the trunk of his car. This time when he reappeared he was carrying a thermal bag, placed the bags of organs in it and then returned it to his trunk, which was slammed shut before he came to stand near me.

“Are you going to leave him like this?” I asked, genuinely curious because every other Ripper victim had been posed theatrically.

“Yes, this is an amalgamation of the way we each kill; you leave your victims where they’ve bled out, throat slit and knife embedded in their chest whereas I kill in various way, take of my victims’ organs, and pose them afterwards. And then there’s the fact that attempting to move him will increase the chance of something going wrong.” He had been staring at the body throughout his little speech before nodding to himself and turning towards the vehicle. “Shall we go?”

Glancing up from the body I had been staring at, I watched as he climbed into his car and then start the engine; nodding I quickly made my way back to the passenger’s side and climbed in. The journey was once again silent for the most part, but this time it was not a tense silence.

“I hope you do not object to me dropping you off near his residence?” I nodded once and we lapsed into silence again. Ten minutes later he spoke again, “You do not enjoy your kills.”

Despite it being a statement, I felt a response was necessary. “I enjoy knowing there’s less filth on this earth.” He merely hummed in response.

Eventually he came to a stop two streets away from our victim’s house and turned to give me an assessing look, “This should be safe enough. It’s been an . . . interesting night.” 

I climbed out only to lean back in a grin on my face, “Stay safe Doctor Ripper!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to have the next chapter up soon-ish . . .
> 
> Lemme know what you think please.

I was locking up my office when I received a call from Jack Crawford demanding that I be waiting outside for him in the next five minutes, because a body had been found that they needed me to look at. Jack’s words “… think it’s the Ripper.” had me pause mid-step as my mind conjured up an image of the rather handsome man I had met the night before. Forcing my mind back to the conversation, I asked him why there was doubt but the only response I received was that I would get to see for myself.

On the way to the crime scene I hunched in on myself, hoping the other man would leave me to my thoughts as I stared out of the window. I didn’t recognise anything we passed but it had been a moonless night, and the area where the abandoned building was, had very few street lamps. If I closed my eyes I could still see the Ripper calmly cut into the body and remove the liver and kidneys, the slight twitch of his lips as I bid him farewell, the smell of his car . . . too soon we were pulling up to the familiar building, which was now lit up by the red and blue lights of the police vehicles as well as the white of the crime scene spotlights.

Standing over the body, I listened to Jack question his people about evidence; of which there were none as usual, and then he had everyone clear the area so that I could get to work. But instead of stepping into the mind of the killer, I closed my eyes and remembered the night before from the moment I had first laid eyes upon the other man as he made his way up the stairs. As I replayed our conversations, enjoying the foreign lilt to his words, another familiar voice broke through my concentration. Turning to look I found that SSA Aaron Hotchner was standing nearby talking with Jack as his team stood in the distance. 

Interested I made my way over and learned that Hotch and his team had been brought in to assist in capturing the new unsub, as the other agent insisted we call ‘serial killer’ me.

\---

Things escalated from there; a few nights after the police found the body of the man the Ripper and I shared, a new body was found in the same location. This one was definitely killed by the Ripper and as usual of the woman’s organs were harvested but this time the body was posed; she was leaning back against one of the supports still standing within the three walls, facing where the fourth should have been, with a hand raised to her brow as if looking into the distance. As I stood where she had been, I noticed that the direction she had been facing was vaguely the same direction in which the man from the other night had lived in, and had to quickly suppress the smile which threatened to form; it would seem that the Doctor Ripper was looking for me.

My next kill was the night after we found the Ripper’s victim; the nurse had abused the old people she was meant to be caring for. Afterwards, I made my way to Freddie Lounds apartment and left her a blood smeared piece of newspaper on which I’d written the address of the nurse’s apartment on. The next day Hotch sent for me, apparently the good Miss Lounds had called the police only after she had already been through the apartment, and had refused to explain how she knew about the body. She was hauled in for obstruction of justice but her boss sent in a fancy lawyer to get her out and not two hours later, TattleCrime.com was featuring her article about the murder.

Two nights later, an anonymous call came through about a disturbance at the deceased nurse’s apartment, and when police arrived they discovered two bodies; two men, kneeling beside the blood stain and looking down at it, and buried in each of their chests was a scalpel; the Ripper had removed both their hearts however. Hotch and some of his people arrived soon after I did, and it was decided that we would work together in the hopes that we could catch at least one of the two serial killers. Jack assured Hotch that if we were to catch one of them, it would be the new unsub, as the Ripper had been eluding us for so much longer; I was actually insulted.

Despite the fact that I wanted to, I did not know how to safely send him a message, so I continued killing. This time it was a couple I had been watching for weeks, looking for an opportunity to strike while their children were not there. And as luck would have it, the night that the Ripper’s double murder was found the children slept out at their aunt’s. The parents were both alcoholics and smoked heavily, neglecting their kids to the point of malnutrition. She woke as I stabbed him, and instead of attacking she tried to run, screaming for all to hear and instead of the fear I expected, I felt excited! She tripped and fell down the stairs as I gave chase, injuring herself and making it easy for me to calmly walk down the stairs and stab her. I watched as the life drained out of her eyes before leaving quickly as I heard sirens approach. The kill had been so exhilarating, that I could have ran back home but I forced myself to calm, and then hid until the coast was clear.

The next day Freddie Lounds was slamming law enforcement for not being able to catch the serial killers that were rampaging through the city. Not long after starting her article I was called by Jack, there were three crime scenes he needed me to see; the abandoned building, the nurse’s apartment and the house I had been in the night before. Intrigued I headed to the apartment first and found Hotch waiting for me and despite the apartment being watched, the Ripper had returned. The body was kneeling at an open window; head raised to look up at whoever stood in front of it, as one arm offered up a heart, the other pointed out the window. I took up a position behind the body and stared out of the window along the arm and out into the distance but could not see anything significant. According to Hotch the body at the abandoned building was also pointing in a direction and he had Doctor Reid working on where, or if, they intersected.

It was then that Jack called to say that an emergency conference was being called; criminal profilers and anybody else that could help, provided they had security clearance and the knowledge, were being called in to help them put a stop to either one, or both, of the serial killers they were currently chasing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to those who tried to help me name serial killer!Will but couldn't make up my mind so I went with unsub :) and brought Hotch into the story.
> 
> I have no beta so any errors are my own, also I love comments! ^_^


End file.
